From the Archives: Ray Bradbury's Visions of the Future.

In addition to his career as a science fiction writer, Bradbury helped design Disney's Epcot Center and the Pavilion of the Future for the 1964 World's Fair. His new collection of short stories is called the Toynbee Convector.

Writer Vernor Vinge. The author of 16 books of science fiction, he gained a cult following for his early role in writing about cyber-culture and the Internet. His new book “Across Realtime,” (Orion Audio) came out earlier this year. He talks about the difficulty of writing science fiction when technology out dates itself as rapidly as it does. He teaches computer science at San Diego State.

Science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Because she is black and female, she's considered an atypical science fiction writer. She's won the Hugo and Nebula Awards, science fiction's two most prestigious awards. Butler often describes her work as "speculative fiction" rather than science fiction. She says, "Science fiction, extrasensory perception, and black people are judged by the worst elements they produce." Her main characters are usually black women, and the fictional world they inhabit are racially diverse. Butler has written nine novels.